Consciousness in the Universe According to Phenomenological Structuralism

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Journal of Cultural and Social Anthropology
Volume 1, Issue 1, 2019, PP 1-9

 Consciousness in the Universe According to Phenomenological
                        Structuralism
                                           Paul C. Mocombe
                    West Virginia State University, Mocombeian Foundation, Inc.
*Corresponding Author: Paul C. Mocombe, West Virginia State University, Mocombeian
Foundation, Inc, Email Id: pmocombe@mocombeian.com

 ABSTRACT
 This work highlights the nature and origin of consciousness in the universe according to Paul C. Mocombe’s
 structurationist theory of phenomenological structuralism. The author, building on the quantum computation
 of ORCH-OR theory and the multiverse ideas of Haitian ontology/epistemology and quantum mechanics
 abductively posits that consciousness is a fifth force of nature, a quantum material substance/energy,
 psychion, the phenomenal property of which is recycled/entangled/superimposed throughout the multiverse
 and becomes embodied via the microtubules of brains and multiple worlds. It is manifested in simultaneous,
 entangled, superimposed, and interconnecting material resource frameworks, multiple worlds, as praxis or
 practical consciousness of organic life, which in-turn becomes the phenomenal properties of material
 (subatomic particle energy, psychion) consciousness that is recycled throughout the multiverses.
 Keywords: Structurationism, Praxis, Panpsychism, Social Class Language Game, Phenomenological
 Structuralism, ORCH-OR Theory

INTRODUCTION                                            worlds. The academic literature “describes three
                                                        possibilities regarding the origin and place of
This work highlights the nature and origin of           consciousness in the universe: (A) as an
consciousness in the universe according to Paul C.      emergent property of complex brain neuronal
Mocombe‟s (2016, 2017, 2018) structurationist           computation, (B) as spiritual quality of the
theory of phenomenological structuralism. The
                                                        universe, distinct from purely physical actions,
author, building on the quantum computation of
                                                        and (C) as composed of discrete „proto-
ORCH-OR theory and the multiverse ideas of              conscious‟ events acting in accordance with
Haitian ontology / epistemology and quantum             physical laws not yet fully understood”
mechanics abductively posits that consciousness is      (Hameroff and Penrose, 2014, pg. 70). The
a fifth force of nature, a quantum material             latter position, (C), represents the ORCH-OR
substance/energy, psychion, the phenomenal              (“orchestrated objective reduction”) theory of
property of which is superimposed, entangled, and       Stuart Hameroff and Roger Penrose (2014),
recycled throughout the multiverses and becomes         which includes aspects of (A) and (B), and posits
embodied via the microtubules of brains and             that “consciousness consists of discrete moments,
multiple worlds. It is manifested in simultaneous,      each an „orchestrated‟ quantum-computational
entangled, superimposed, and interconnecting
                                                        process terminated by… an action [,objective
material resource frameworks, multiple worlds, as       reduction or rooted in quantum aspects of the
praxis or practical consciousness of aggregated         fine structure of space—time geometry, this
organic life, which in-turn, following death or         being coupled to brain neuronal processes via
disaggregation, becomes the phenomenal properties
                                                        microtubules” (pg. 70). In this view, the
of material (subatomic particle energy, psychion)       understanding is that a proto-conscious
consciousness that is recycled throughout the           experience existed in the universe, panpsychism,
multiverses.                                            and as a result of emergent structures of the brain it
BACKGROUND OF THE PROBLEM                               (proto-conscious experience, psychion) became
                                                        embodied and evolved as a result of quantum
Consciousness here refers to subjective Awareness       neuronal computations of “brains.” Paul C.
of phenomenal experiences (ideology, language,          Mocombe‟s (2016, 2017, 2018) structurationist
self, feelings, choice, control of voluntary            sociology, phenomenological structuralism,
behavior, thoughts, etc.) of internal and external      which attempts to resolve the structure/agency

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Consciousness in the Universe According to Phenomenological Structuralism

problematic of the social sciences, builds on the        of an individual actors‟ (mental) stance/analytics
ORCH-OR theory and panpsychism of                        (Martin Heidegger‟s term) vis-à-vis three types of
Hameroff and Penrose, while holding on to the            structures/systems of signification amidst the
multiverse hypothesis of quantum mechanics               practical consciousness associated with societal
and Haitian ontology/epistemology, which the             structural reproduction and differentiation (the
authors reject because it is not “a more down-to-        social system): 1) the (chemical, biological, and
earth viewpoint” (Hameroff and Penrose, 2014,            physiological) drives (forms of sensibility and
pg. 51). For Mocombe (2016, 2017, 2018),                 understanding) of the body and brain (the
quantum superposition, entanglement, and                 biological system), 2) impulses or phenomenal
evidence in Haitian Vodou of spirit possession,          properties of residual past consciousnesses or
which represent ancestors from a parallel world,         recycled / entangled / superimposed subatomic /
Vilokan, of the earth‟s of which we ought to             chemical particles encapsulated in and as the
pattern our behaviors and structures, are                neuronal energies of the brain via microtubules
grounding proofs for the acceptance of the               (the physical system), 3) and actions or practical
multiple worlds hypothesis of quantum                    consciousnesses resulting from the deferment of
mechanics. Within the latter hypothesis, the             meaning in ego-centered linguistic and symbolic
understanding is that “each possibility in a             communicative discourse (the linguistic system).
superposition evolves to form its own universe,
                                                         Generally speaking, consciousnesses, actions
resulting in an infinite multitude of coexisting
                                                         (practical     consciousness),    learning,    and
„parallel‟ worlds. The stream of consciousness
                                                         development within Mocombe‟s phenomenological
of the observer is supposed somehow to „split‟,
                                                         structural ontology are the product of the
so that there is one in each of the worlds-at least
                                                         embodiment of the phenomenal properties of
in those worlds for which the observer remains
                                                         recycled/entangled/superimposed          subatomic
alive and conscious. Each instance of the
                                                         neuronal energies/chemicals, psychion, of the
observer‟s consciousness experiences a separate
                                                         multiverse objectified in the space-time of
independent world, and is not directly aware of
                                                         multiverses via the aggregated body and the
any of the other worlds” (Hameroff and
                                                         microtubules of the brain. Once objectified and
Penrose, 2014, pg. 50). It is within this multiple
                                                         embodied the phenomenal properties of the
world‟s hypothesis that Mocombe constitutes
                                                         neuronal energies/chemicals encounter the
the notion of consciousness in the universe
                                                         space-time of physical worlds via a
according to his theory of phenomenological
                                                         transcendental subject of consciousnesses (the
structuralism. For Mocombe, consciousness is a
                                                         aggregation of a universal-self superimposed
fifth force of nature, a quantum material
                                                         and entangled across the multiple worlds of the
substance/energy, psychion, the phenomenal
                                                         multiverse) and the drives and sensibilities of
property of which is recycled/entangled
                                                         the aggregated body and brain in reified
/superimposed throughout the multiverse and
                                                         structures of signification, language, ideology,
becomes embodied via the microtubules of
                                                         ideological apparatuses, and communicative
brains.     It is manifested in simultaneous,
                                                         discourse defined and determined by other
entangled, superimposed, and interconnecting
                                                         beings that control the resources (economics),
material resource frameworks as embodied
                                                         and modes of distributing them, of the material
praxis or practical consciousness, which in-turn
                                                         world required for physical survival in space-
becomes the phenomenal properties of material
                                                         time. The Heidegger an (mental) stances /
(subatomic       particle    energy,    psychion)
                                                         analytics, “ready-to-hand,” “unready-to-hand,”
consciousness that is recycled/entangled
                                                         and “present-at-hand,” which emerge as a result
/superimposed throughout the multiverses.
                                                         of conflict between the embodied transcendental
THEORY AND METHOD                                        ego vis-à-vis its different systems, 1) the
                                                         sensibilities and (chemical, biological, and
Structurationist sociology synthesizes structure         physiological) drives of the body and brain, 2)
and agency via the concept of praxis or practical        drives/impulses of embodied residual memories
consciousness; accounting for agency or practical        or phenomenal properties of past recycled
consciousness via the actions associated with            /entangled/superimposed        subatomic/chemical
structural reproduction and differentiation within a     particles, 3) the actions produced via the body in
particular material resource framework (Crothers,        relation to the indeterminacy/deferment of
2003; Ortner, 1984). Building on structurationist
                                                         meaning of linguistic and symbolic signifiers as
sociology, Mocombe argues that the “moments,
                                                         they appear to individuated consciousnesses in
or movements, which escape from the compound of          ego-centered communicative discourse, 4) and
socially constructed identifications” are the product

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Consciousness in the Universe According to Phenomenological Structuralism

the dialectical and differentiating effects, i.e.,     deferment of meaning, along with the
structural reproduction and differentiation, of        differentiating logic or class divisions of the
the structures of signification, social class          social relations of production, which produces
language game, of those who control the                the variability of actions and practices in
economic materials (and their distribution, i.e.,      cultures, social structures, or social systems. All
mode of production) of a world are the origins         four types of actions are always present and
of practical consciousnesses. All four types of        manifested in a social structure to some degree
actions, the drives and sensibilities of the body      contingent upon the will and desires of the
and brain, drives or phenomenal properties of          economic social class that controls the material
embodied recycled/entangled/superimposed past          resource framework through its body (practical
consciousnesses,       structural     reproduction/    consciousness), language/symbols, ideology,
differentiation stemming from the mode of              ideological apparatuses, and social relations of
production, and deferential actions arising from       production. They choose, amidst the class
the deferment of meaning in ego-centered               division of the social relations of production,
communicative discourse via the present-at-            what other meaning constitutions and practices are
hand stance/analytic, exist in the material world      allowed to manifest themselves in the material
with the social class language game, i.e., the         world without facing alienation, marginalization,
physical, mental, emotional, ideological, etc. 5)      domination, or death.
powers of those who control the material
                                                       Hence, we never experience the things-in-
resource framework as the causative agent for
                                                       themselves of the world culturally and historically
individual behaviors. In other words, our
                                                       in consciousness. We experience them structurally
(mental) stances in consciousness vis-à-vis the
                                                       or relationally, the structure of the conjuncture of
conflict between the (chemical, biological, and
                                                       the mode of production, its language, ideology,
physiological) drives and sensibilities of the
                                                       ideological apparatuses, etc., and our (mental)
body      and     brain,    (societal)    structural
                                                       stances/analytics, ready-to-hand, unready-to-hand,
reproduction and differentiation, drives of
                                                       present-at-hand, vis-à-vis these things as they
embodied past consciousnesses of recycled /
                                                       appear to and in consciousness determine our
entangled/superimposed         subatomic/chemical
                                                       practical consciousness or behaviors.
particles, and deferential actions arising as a
result of the deferment of meaning in ego-             We initially know, experience, and utilize the
centered communicative discourse determines            things of and in consciousness in the
the practical consciousness we want to                 preontological ready-to-hand mode, which is
recursively reorganize and reproduce in the            structural and relational. That is, our bodies
material world. The power and power positions          encounter, know, experience, and utilize the things
of those who control (via the mode of                  of the world in consciousness, intersubjectively, via
production, language, ideology, ideological            their representation as objects of knowledge, truth,
apparatuses, and communicative discourse) the          usage, and experience enflamed and defined in the
resources (and their distribution, i.e., mode of       relational logic and practices or language game
production) of a material resource framework,          (Wittgenstein‟s term) of the institutions or
and the threat it poses to the ontological security    ideological apparatuses of the other beings-of-the-
of an actor, in the end determines what actions        material resource framework whose historicity
and identities are allowed to organize and             comes before our own and gets reified in and as the
reproduce in the material world without the            actions of their bodies, language, ideology,
individual actor/agent facing marginalization or       ideological apparatuses, mode of production, and
death.                                                 communicative discourse.
It is Being‟s (mental) stance/analytic, “ready-to-     This is the predefined phenomenal structural, i.e.,
hand,” “unready-to-hand,” and “present-at-             ontological, world we and our bodies are thrown-
hand,” in consciousness vis-à-vis the conflict, or     in in coming to be-in-the-world. How an
lack thereof, between the (chemical, biological,       embodied-hermeneutically-structured Being as
and physiological) drives and sensibilities of the     such      solipsistically   view,    experience,
aggregated body and brain, drives/impulses             understand, act, and utilize the predefined
(phenomenal properties) of residual past               objects of knowledge, truth, and experienced
consciousnesses                                 of     defined by others and their conditions of
recycled/entangled/superimposed          subatomic     possibilities in consciousness in order to
particles, alternative practices which arise as a      formulate their practical consciousness is albeit
result of phenomenological meditation and              indeterminate.

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Consciousness in the Universe According to Phenomenological Structuralism

Martin Heidegger in Being in Time is accurate,       the unready-to-hand stance in response to those
however, in suggesting that three stances or         who they encounter that attempts, present-at-
modes of encounter (Analytic of Dasein),             hand, to alter the nature of the dominant social
“presence-at-hand,” “readiness-to-hand,” and         class language game they recursively reorganize
“un-readiness-to-hand,” characterizes our views      and reproduce as outlined by those in power
of the things of consciousness represented inter     positions who are present-at-hand of the
subjectively via bodies, language, ideology, and     dominant social class language game. In either
communicative discourse, and subsequently            case, not all beings achieve the present-at-hand
determine our practical consciousness or social      stance. The latter is the stance of science and
agency.                                              ideologies, which are tautologies when they
                                                     profess that their stances represent the nature of
In “ready-to-hand,” which is the preontological
                                                     reality as such, and those in power positions,
mode of human existence thrown in the world,
                                                     who choose, among a plethora of alternative
we accept and use the things in consciousness
                                                     present-at-hand social class language games,
with no conscious experience of them, i.e.,
                                                     what alternative practical consciousnesses
without thinking about them or giving them any
                                                     outside of their social class language game that
meaning or signification outside of their
                                                     are allowed to manifest in the material world.
intended usage. Heidegger‟s example is that of
using a hammer in hammering. We use a                DISCUSSION
hammer without thinking about it or giving it
any other condition of possibility outside of its    Hence, as outlined above, phenomenological
                                                     structuralism posits consciousness to be the by-
intended usage as defined by those whose
historicity presupposes our own. In “present-at-     product or evolution of subatomic particles
hand,” which, according to Heidegger, is the         unfolding with increasing levels of abstraction
stance of science, we objectify the things of        within a material resource framework enflamed
                                                     by the mode of production, language, ideology,
consciousness and attempt to determine and
reify their meanings, usage, and conditions of       ideological apparatuses, and communicative
possibilities as the nature of reality as such.      discourse of bodies recursively reorganizing and
Hence the hammer is intended for hammering           reproducing the ideals of the latter factors as
by those who created it as a thing solely meant      their practical consciousness. That is to say, the
                                                     logical consequence regarding the evolution and
as such.
                                                     constitution of the multiverses, and their
The “unready-to-hand” outlook is assumed             contents, based on the assumptions of
when something goes wrong in our usage of a          superposition, action-at-a-distance, phenomenal
thing of consciousness as defined and                properties, and panpsychism of quantum
determined by those who adopt a “present-at-         mechanics, for Mocombe, is similar to the
hand” view. As in the case of the hammer, the        intersecting worlds theory highlighted in Haitian
unready-to-hand view is assumed when the             Vodou, which parallels the physics, “membrane
hammer breaks and we must objectify it, by then      theory,” of Lisa Randall and Raman Sundrum
assuming a present-at-hand position, and think       (1999). The proposal in keeping with the logic
about it in order to either reconstitute it as a     of Haitian Vodou and the “brane theory” of
hammer, or give it another condition of              Randall and Sundrum is that there might be an
possibility. Any other condition of possibility      additional dimension on the cosmological scale,
that we give the hammer outside of its initial       the scale described by general relativity, which
condition of possibility which presupposed our       gives rise to four dimensional multiverses
historicity becomes relational, defined in           within it. That is to say, our universe is
relation to any of its other conditions of           embedded in a vastly bigger five-dimensional
possibilities it may have been given by others       space (the four-dimensional space of relativity,
we exist in the world with who either ready-to-      plus a fifth dimension for the subatomic forces
hand, unready-to-hand, or present-at-hand            including consciousness), a kind of super-
attempts to maintain the social class language       universe. Within this super-space, our universe
game of power. In the ready-to-hand stance the       is just one of a whole array of co-existing
latter unconsciously practices and attempts to       universes (Haitian Vodou only accounts for our
reproduce the social class language game of          universe and its parallel), each a separate four-
power by discriminating against and marginalizing    dimensional bubble within a wider arena of five-
any other conditions of possibilities of their       dimensional space where consciousness (a
social class language as determined by those in      subatomic      force)   is    recycled/entangled/
ideological power positions. They may move to        superimposed between the five-dimensional

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Consciousness in the Universe According to Phenomenological Structuralism

super-space,    i.e.,   superverses,    and    their    production).
multiverses.
                                                        Hence in the end, subject constitution is a
For Mocombe the multiverses originated, from            product of conflict and an individual‟s mental
the super-universes, either by fiat or quantum          stance,     i.e.,   analytics,    vis-à-vis   three
fluctuation. They are bosonic forces that were          structures/systems of signification and the
brought forth together with fermion counterparts.       ability to defer meaning in ego-centered
They are also the primeval pan-psychic fields,          communicative discourse stemming from the
stemming from the super-verses, whose fermion           social class language game (i.e., language,
can be called a psychion, a particle of consciousness   symbols, ideology, ideological apparatuses, and
or proto-consciousness.       These have evolved        communicative discourse) of those who control
together to produce the four forces of nature,          the mode of production of a material resource
electromagnetic force; gravity; the strong nuclear      framework. It is the ready-to-hand drives of the
force; and weak nuclear force, in our universe,         body and brain, ready-to-hand and present-at-
which in turn produced atoms, molecules, and            hand manifestation of past recycled residual
aggregated life endowed (embodied) with the             consciousnesses/subatomic         particles,    the
recycled / entangled / superimposed consciousness       present-at-hand phenomenological meditation
and phenomenal properties of the primeval pan-          and deferment of meaning that occurs in
psychic fields, psychion, of the superverses and        embodied consciousness via language, ideology,
their multiverses (the fifth force of nature).          and communicative discourse as reflected in
Subatomic particles, via the Higgs boson                diverse individual practices, within the ready-to-
particle, gave rise to carbon atoms, molecules          hand, unready-to-hand, and present-at-hand
and chemistry, which gave rise to DNA,                  differentiating logic or class divisions of the
biological organisms, neurons and nervous               social relations of production, which produces
systems, which aggregated into bodies and               the variability of actions and practices in
brains that gave rise to the embodiment of              cultures, social structures, or social systems. All
preexisting consciousness of the subatomic              four types of actions, the (chemical, biological,
particles, bodies, and languages from entangled/        and physiological) drives/impulses of the body
superimposed multiverses.                               and residual past consciousnesses of subatomic
                                                        particles, structural reproduction/differentiation,
 In human beings, the indeterminate behavior of
                                                        and actions resulting from the deferment of
superimposed and entangled subatomic neuronal
                                                        meaning in ego-centered communicative
energies that produced the plethora of
                                                        discourse, are always present and manifested in
consciousnesses and languages in the neocortex
                                                        a social structure (which is the reified ideology
of brains gave rise to ideologies, which in turn
                                                        via ideological apparatuses, their social class
gave rise to ideological apparatuses and
                                                        language game, of those who control a material
societies (sociology) under the social class
                                                        resource framework) to some degree contingent
language game or language, ideology, and
                                                        upon the will and desires of the economic social
ideological apparatuses of those who organize
                                                        class that controls the material resource
and control the material resources (and their
                                                        framework through the actions of their bodies
distribution) required for physical (embodied)
                                                        (practical consciousness), language, symbols,
survival in a particular resource framework. So
                                                        ideology, ideological apparatuses, and social
contrary to Karl Marx‟s materialism which
                                                        relations of production. They choose, amidst
posits human consciousness to be the product of
                                                        the class division of the social relations of
material conditions, the logic here is a structural
                                                        production, “the structure of the conjuncture,”
Marxist one in the Althusserian sense. That is,
                                                        (Marshall Sahlins‟s term) what other meaning
the aggregated, atomic, mature human being is a
                                                        constitutions and practices are allowed to
body and neuronal drives that never encounters
                                                        manifest themselves without the Beings of that
the (ontological) material world directly.
                                                        practice facing alienation, marginalization,
Instead, they encounter the (ideological) world
                                                        domination, or death. The individual being is
via structures of signification, which structures
                                                        initially constituted as superimposed, entangled,
the world or a particular part of it through the
                                                        recycled, and embodied subatomic particles of
body,      language,     ideology,     ideological
                                                        multiple worlds of the multiverse, which have
apparatuses, and communicative discourse, i.e.,
                                                        their own predetermined form of understanding
social class language game, of those whose
                                                        and cognition, phenomenal properties, based on
power and power positions dictate how the
                                                        previous or simultaneous experiences as
resources of that framework are to be gathered,
                                                        aggregated matter (this is akin to what the Greek
used, and distributed (means and mode of

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Consciousness in the Universe According to Phenomenological Structuralism

philosopher Plato refers to when he posits             and brain at the expense of the drives/desires of
knowledge as recollection of the Soul). Again,         the subatomic particles or the social class
the individual‟s actions are not necessarily           language game of the material resource framework
determined by the embodiment and drives of             they find their existence unfolding in.
these recycled/entangled/superimposed subatomic
                                                       The social class language game, and its
particles. It is conflict and an individual‟s
                                                       differentiating effects, an individual find their
stance, ready-to-hand, unready-to-hand, and
                                                       existence unfolding in is the third structuring
present-at-hand, when the subatomic particles
                                                       structure, which attempts to determine the
become aggregated matter or embodied, which
                                                       actions of individual beings as they experience
determines whether are not they become aware,
                                                       being-in-the-world as embodied subatomic
present-at-hand, of the subatomic particle drives
                                                       particles.     The aggregated individual finds
and choose to recursively reorganize and
                                                       themselves objectified and unfolding within a
reproduce the content of the drives as their
                                                       material resource framework controlled by the
practical consciousness.
                                                       actions of other bodies, which presuppose their
This desire to reproduce the cognition and             existence, via the actions of their bodies
understanding of the (chemical, biological, and        (practical consciousness), language, communicative
physiological) drives of the recycled /entangled       discourse, ideology, and ideological apparatuses
/superimposed subatomic particles, however,            stemming from how they satisfy the desires of
may be limited by the structuring structure of         their bodies and subatomic particle drives
the aggregated body and brain of the individual        (means and mode of production). What is
subject.                                               aggregated as a social class language game by
                                                       those in power positions via and within its mode
 That is to say, the second origins and basis of
                                                       of production, language, ideology, ideological
an individual‟s actions are the structuring drives
                                                       apparatuses, and communicative discourse
and desires, for food, clothing, shelter, social
                                                       attempts to interpellate and subjectify other
interaction, and sex, of the aggregated body and
                                                       beings to its interpretive frame of satisfying
brain, which the subatomic particles constitute
                                                       their bodily needs, fulfilling the impulses of
and embody. In other words, the aggregated
                                                       their subatomic particles, and organizing a
body and brain is preprogrammed with its own
                                                       material resource framework at the expense of
(biological) forms of sensibility, understanding,
                                                       all others, and becomes a third form of
and cognition, structuring structure, by which it
                                                       structuring individual action based on the mode
experiences being-in-the-world as aggregated
                                                       of production and how it differentiates
embodied subatomic particles.
                                                       individual actors.
These bodily forms of sensibility, understanding,
                                                       That is to say, an individual‟s interpellation,
and cognition, such as the drive and desire for
                                                       subjectification, and differentiation within the
food, clothing, shelter, social interaction,
                                                       social class language game that presupposes
linguistic communication, and sex, are tied to
                                                       their being-in-a-world attempts to determine
the material embodiment and survival of the
                                                       their actions or practical consciousness via the
embodied individual actor, and may or may not
                                                       reified language, ideology, etc., of the social
supersede or conflict with the desire and drive
                                                       class language game, the meaning of which can
of an individual to recursively (re) organize and
                                                       be deferred via the communicative discourse of
reproduce the structuring structure of the
                                                       the individual actors. Hence, the deferment of
superimposed,       entangled,    and      recycled
                                                       meaning in ego-centered communicative
(phenomenal properties of) subatomic particles.
                                                       discourse of the language and ideology of a
If these two initial structuring structures are in
                                                       social class language game is the final means of
conflict, the individual moves from the ready-to-
                                                       determining an individual‟s action or practical
hand to the unready-to-hand stance or analytics
                                                       consciousness outside of, and in relation to, its
where they may begin to reflect upon and
                                                       stance, i.e., analytics, vis-à-vis the drives of
question their being-in-the-world prior to acting.
                                                       subatomic particles, drives and desires of the
Hence just as in the case of the structuring
                                                       body and brain, and structural reproduction and
structure of the subatomic particles it is an
                                                       differentiation.
individual being‟s analytics vis-à-vis the drives
of its body and brain in relation to the impulses      Whereas the practical consciousness of the
of the subatomic particles, which determines           transcendental ego stemming from the impulses
whether or not they become driven by the desire        of    embodied subatomic particles        are
to solely fulfill the material needs of their body     indeterminant as with its neuronal processes

6                                             Journal of Cultural and Social Anthropology V1 ● I1 ● 2019
Consciousness in the Universe According to Phenomenological Structuralism

involved with the constitution of meaning in         meanings for alternative forms of being-in-the-
ego-centered communicative discourse (Albeit         world within their social class language. They
physicists are in the process of exploring the       can accept, marginalize, or seek to eradicate the
nature, origins, and final states of subatomic       deferred or decentered subject or their practices.
particles, and neuroscientists are attempting to
understand the role of neuronal activities in        CONCLUSIONS
developing the transcendental ego and whether        Hence within the theory and methodology of
or not it continues to exist after death). The       phenomenological structuralism, there is,
form of the understandings and sensibilities of      contrary to David Hume‟s “bundle of
the body and brain are determinant as with           perception” hypothesis, a human essence, which
structural reproduction and differentiation of the   is tied to the embodiment and structuring
mode of production, and therefore can be             structure of the phenomenal properties of
mapped out by neuroscientists, biologists, and       superimposed, entangled, embodied, and
sociologists to determine the nature, origins, and   recycled subatomic particles, the processes of
directions of societal constitution and an           which are unbeknownst to us as of the writing of
individual actor‟s practical consciousness           this work, as they are recursively reorganized
unfolding.                                           and reproduced via the superverse and its
The interaction of all four elements or processes    multiverses.
in relation to the (mental) stance of the            Just the same, Universalism and Truth are also
transcendental ego of the individual actor is the    tied to the science and physics of the remaining
basis for human action, praxis/practical             processes of phenomenological structuralism.
consciousness in a world. However, in the end,       Subatomic/chemical particles with phenomenal
consequently, the majority of practical              properties constitute objects and subjects that
consciousness will be a product of an individual     are external and internal to the perceiving
actor‟s embodiment and the structural                human actor who knows them (the objects and
reproduction and differentiation of a social class   subjects) as both external and internal
language game given 1) the determinant nature        phenomenon endowed with, and mediated by,
of embodiment, form of understanding and             linguistic and ideological meanings, stemming from
sensibility of the body and brain amidst,            the modes of production, of other human actors
paradoxically, the indeterminacy of impulses of      who presupposed their aggregated existence.
embodied subatomic particles and the neuronal
                                                     The essence, universalism, and Truth of an
processes involved in ego-centered communicative
                                                     object and subject lies in the phenomenal
discourse; and 2) the consolidation of power of
                                                     properties of their subatomic and chemical
those who control the material resource
                                                     particles once demystified and demythologized,
framework wherein a society, the social class
                                                     from linguistic and ideological meanings and
language game, is ensconced and the threat that
                                                     understandings associated with the mode of
power (consolidated and constituted via the
                                                     human production, by the techniques of
actions of bodies, mode of production, language,
                                                     phenomenology and the scientific process.
ideology,     ideological     apparatuses,     and
communicative discourse) poses to the ontological    Be that as it may, for phenomenological
security of an aggregated individual actor who       structuralism, in keeping with the empiricist
chooses (or not) either ready-to-hand or present-    logic of Bertrand Russell, “outside of human
at-hand to recursively reorganize and reproduce      desires there are no moral standards.” Morality
the ideals of the society as their practical         or moral standards are associated with the
consciousness. It should be mentioned that in        linguistic and ideological desires (power and
response to this latter process, those in power      power positions) of those who control the
positions who internalize the ideals of the social   resources and mode of production of a material
structure and recursively (re) organize and          resource framework via their language, ideology,
reproduce them as their practical consciousness      ideological apparatuses, and communicative
are in the unready-to-hand stance when they          discourse (i.e., social class language game). It
encounter alternative forms of being-in-the-         (moral practices and statements) constitutes a part
world within their social class language game.       of the superverse /multiverse as phenomenal
They dialectically attempt to reconcile the          properties of subatomic particles once
practical consciousness of their social class        disaggregated as lived-experience.         In that
language game with the reified practical             sense, assuming the phenomenal properties of
consciousness of those who have deferred their       subatomic particles get recycled between the

Journal of Cultural and Social Anthropology V1 ● I1 ● 2019                                             7
Consciousness in the Universe According to Phenomenological Structuralism

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 Citation: Paul C. Mocombe "Consciousness in the Universe According to Phenomenological Structuralism”,
 Journal of Cultural and Social Anthropology, 1(1), 2019, pp.1-9.
 Copyright: © 2019 Paul C. Mocombe. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the
 Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in
 any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Journal of Cultural and Social Anthropology V1 ● I1 ● 2019                                                   9
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